1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an irrigation system for an agricultural area, and more particularly, to an improved computer-controlled irrigation system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In prior-art automatic irrigation systems, an agricultural area is irrigated, for example, once a week for a predetermined time interval. Operating in an open-loop mode does not insure that an exact quantity of water has been delivered to the agricultural area. The same would be true for the distribution of chemicals to the agricultural area in an open loop system.
Other automatic irrigation systems have sensed the moisture level in the soil of the agricultural area and irrigated whenever necessary to maintain a predetermined moisture level in the soil. However, these systems have no way of determining or adequately controlling the quantity of water delivered to the agricultural area and therefore cannot provide the capability of conserving limited water resources. In addition, such a system may fail to provide an adequate amount of water since the moisture level of the soil may be sampled at a place that is not representative of the entire agricultural area. In short, the prior-art automatic irrigation systems do not provide an accounting of the exact amount of water and chemicals that have been distributed. Without the aforementioned accounting, there is no way to determine the history of the irrigation system, or to factor in the availability of water resources.
For the foregoing and other shortcomings and problems, there has been a long felt need for an improved computercontrolled irrigation system.